Shane Black Explains the Origin of the Ultimate Predator
Perhaps the biggest addition to the Predator mythos in Shane Black’s upcoming sequel is the debut of the hulking ultimate Predator.
First glimpsed in the latest trailer last month, the classic Predator finds itself targeted by an even more formidable counterpart dubbed in the trailer as “the ultimate Predator”. With the new film revealing that Predators travel to different planets to obtain new genetic material to upgrade themselves, Black confirms the theory that the new Predator is a result of genetic enhancement.
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“If the predator was to be an amalgam of, not just an ordinary predator, but also a collection of traits garnered from the various most powerful species that they’ve hunted, then you basically would have one that is stronger, faster, and smarter,” explained Black in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “We finally got an image that we liked, which captures this very canny, very cunning, and effortlessly powerful, savage predator.”
Larger, more muscular, and unencumbered by the futuristic armor of its more traditionally designed fellow hunter, Black wanted to be sure that the new design would look more natural and animalistic and less like a stuntman in a giant rubber suit.
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“If you’re not careful, it can look like a guy in a football suit; big, bulky guy just stomping around,” admitted Black. “I wanted a certain more graceful, more light, more athletic quality, literally like a predator. If you watch a cheetah, it’s not clunky.”
By the looks of what’s been revealed so far, the ultimate Predator certainly looks the part of brutal hunter.
Directed by Shane Black from a script cowritten with Fred Dekker, The Predator stars Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay, Keegan-Michael Key, Olivia Munn, Sterling K. Brown, Alfie Allen, Jane Thomas, Augusto Aguilera, Jake Busey, and Yvonne Strahovski. The film arrives in theaters on September 14.
